The I Look Up Film Challenge with the AIA

...by marysol.

So, exciting news- we made it onto the AIA website! We're supposed to get featured on their blog, "Meet the Contestants." Exciting stuff. I'll post when we get featured but WOW have I been waiting.

Eric also sent me this article which is really inspiring: You Don't Need Permission.

We got a REALLY interesting comment about Honesty, Aina and Connection about how it *could* have "Defend Hawaii" sentiments. *high five* Good. I'm glad *someone* caught *something*. LOL. Wow, I love being an artist. 

Too much work to do tonight and it's already 10:44PM. Look out for 2 more video posts: (1) Cold Brew vs. Latte and (2) Deep Stretches. Peace Out.

Separation Anxiety

...by marysol.

I'm off on a business trip for a week and a half. I'm already having separation anxiety. Yuck. I hate that when that happens. I'm an independent person, damnit. I'll be heading off to a tropical island I once lived on and it will be nice to be back in the company of friends that are so close that they're Family. At the same time, it's an island with... an ex-boyfriend and a ex-serious-crush both of whom I don't care about but only care about how I wish Eric would be with me. Yuck, I know. I think I just vomited a little bit in my own mouth. Damn. 10 days. I thought this new job that involves a lot of travel was an awesome idea. I don't know, I'm reconsidering. Nah, it's still an awesome idea. LOL, IRL.

I think I'll be posting pictures for some sh**s and giggles, later.

To help curb the separation anxiety, I'm gonna try to implement an epic date tonight that might include night swimming and Rumfire. Stay tuned?

What's next?

...by marysol

I was on the phone with Eric last night. For the purposes of "business" we were talking about strategic development. IRL we were talking about "the future of us." Whoa. WHOA. What a thing to constantly navigate through and both coming from pasts... with... Baggage.

So- that was the theme, though: What's Next? I wish it were simple as that: being new and fresh and move forward without years of built emotions clouding our creative development. But, at the same time- aren't all of the emotions that INFORM us, maturity? I don't know how to philosophize about this properly because this Philosophy is not my swim lane. While I spin like an emotional mess, Eric mentions that there's an upcoming deadline: Deep Stretches. I completely forgot that I put that on our calendar. We have 2 more deadlines for the month of August and I adore that Eric can navigate and focus without me, my spinning and my emotional baggage that I bring to the table.

So, what IS next? 2 shorts that go in opposite directions from the two we have already released. One that Eric is working on is definitely on the serious art end of the spectrum. It was Eric recording me stretching and the thought process I need to get in to stretch, Seriously. The other is the one I'm working on which is me poking fun at a stupid argument we had... about coffee. The plan is to have one SERIOUS collaborations every month and have cute little off shoots when we have time. Yay! For those of you who care (which, LOL, I'm sure is only just me and Eric) there's something to look forward to!

We finished our sophomore film: Honesty, Aina and Connection

...by marysol

The deadline was last night, 9:00PM Hawaii Time and we finished around 7-8. It always feels GREAT when finishing with a good cushion before deadline.

We were both gushing at how proud we were of it and that it's better than the first one. Eric did an amazing job... his video compositions were so much more than I could have envisioned. It's moving art! He was gushing at how I flushed out the narrative- interviewing him on camera to get just the right dialogue, cutting it up and matching it with the visual. He went back in and added the rest of the sound effects and I'm really proud of this piece. I am speechless at how to describe our collaborative relationship makes me feel. I'm doing things I would only wish I could do- but I'm actually DOING IT. I... I think I'm a film maker.  It's only 2 short films right now but the feeling- the rush of finishing a creative piece and feeling like its the best work I've ever done... I mean... wow! What a feeling that I don't know how to describe! I don't even know if I ever felt like this in architecture school. I think I'm addicted to this feeling and look forward to continuing this collaboration for as long as I can manage it. Oh- but wow- things got really intense.

A one day with Eric working on this project felt like 3 days just because it's been so intense and epic. We'll work, then somehow get into some really deep personal conversations and then somehow shake it off to get back to work because we're both THAT dedicated to project. We've only been together 2 months and every time we see each other we're doing multiple epic things in as short a period of time as 1 day. For instance, one day we had this cute amazing breakfast, went to the beach, I saw him bodysurf for the first time, then we hung out on the sand then all of a sudden we start talking about long term "track" relationships... hi, hello, I'm not ready to talk about THAT but it just came up! Then we leave the beach only to get T-boned by some douche motorcyclist who decided he owned , my car gets f**ked... then to calm my nerves we get dinner at the place we went to on our first date, get googly eyed and cheesy, then get back to work on a project we're collaborating on. So that's just 1 example of 1 day we spent together. We have some pretty epic days like that. Never a dull moment. I am hoping that someday soon we actually will have a dull moment because wow, for someone like me who has this much energy, is going to want a little relaxing time.

finding our roles in the company and the feel of competition.

...by marysol.

I had a rough day... a rough week this week at work (um, the job that actually pays). It wasn't heart shattering like it could have been and has been in the past. The intensity at work was pretty high with a lot of projects on fire all at once. So, what did I do? I bought a sodastream. It was partly selfish and I know that the acquisition of this product would make taking care of "my artist" (Eric) immensely easier and potentially make him ecstatic! I've decided it will be staying in our Honolulu office. But, our Kailua studio has a hibachi- which is also dope.

Calling each other by titles is becoming our thing. I crazy love it. I think it's our version of pet names. First, I introduced myself to a cousin (of course, while filming) and said "I'm a producer now." That's where it started. I got a good laugh out of Eric when I played him the footage. Now, it's becoming more and more apparent of what our roles are becoming. I am the producer, writer, the caterer,  and office manager. He's the creative end of our spectrum; our director, cinematographer, main camera man, actor and all in all, I call him "my artist."

I just got back from visiting the DxDp Honolulu office. Eric is hard at work on our I Look Up Challenge entry. http://ilookup.org/ that is due on Sunday. We got selected to be featured in the "Meet the Contestants" blog series but it hasn't posted yet. I'll be honest, I got WICKED excited when I found out we got selected. We've been madly at work trying to do our social media roll-out 2 weeks early to synchronize with our feature. I've been trying to keep my artist focused on the film first and foremost while I'm attempting to do the business marketing side of things. Our "breaks" are barely breaks since we're constantly discussing strategic development. I love that he matches me (if not, exceeds me) in intensity and commitment to working and self betterment. He was just getting on my case about having a tighter and professional narrative all while doing a great lion-share of the film editing. I just got a sneak peak of where he is at right now and I'm astounded at his directorial vision; I find it fresh, different... and organic. Why am I not surprised? This is the same guy who gives me a hard time for getting corporate groceries instead of the non-GMO, Gluten Free blah blah blah hippie stuff. But, it's really amazing to see his mind work in the film medium.

So our sophomore project is the I Look Up Challenge. I'm starting to get nervous since I've already seen 3 "Meet the Contestants" features on the website. I'm getting scared of the competition and that I didn't give enough to Eric to work with. *deep breathes* I think this nervousness will just become my thing. Our film is featuring the Hawaii State Capitol building, my favorite building in Hawaii since I was a kid. Yet another instant connection: it's his favorite building, too. Our promotional photos were taken there based on our slight obsession with the building. If immerse | journey is a love letter to each other (as some of my friends have described it), our sophomore project will be a love letter to the building and how it's connected us. I... am nervous though, of the competition. The theme is "Architecture as a Solution" and I'm afraid that our concept of "architecture as a connection" may not be as appealing as how others may interpret the theme. *deep breathes* This is right about the time that I have to remind myself who I'm doing this for: for me and Eric to exercise our creativity. But damnit, competition just gets me riled up!

our trip to watch an island grow

...by marysol

Barely 3 weeks into us dating, we decided to go to the Big Island (what us locals fondly call the island of Hawaii) together. I know, terrifying, right? well, really it's about how fast we're moving in this, but we did come to a resolve that it's a work retreat to get some footage. LOL, I kept calling it a "work retreat" rather than what normal people would call a "romantic weekend away."

How did this come up? well, our second date was me staring at his paintings. It's eerie because a lot of his paintings reminded me of the Hawaii Volcano National Park, but... he's never been. I asked him about it and he said "it's all I've wanted to do since I came to Hawaii." I got really excited to be there with him when he finally sees what he's been painting IRL (In Real Life). So, we scheduled the trip a month in advance (still, barely knowing each other) and it still terrifies me how quick things have happened and are happening but the weekend of August 6 was my only free weekend until October and I didn't want to wait that long. And, WOW did we luck out! The lava was meeting the ocean for the first time in years! Crazy exciting! I busted a good amount of money and made a value trade arrangement for the both of us to go on a sunrise boat ride that Saturday morning.

It's difficult to succinctly describe how great the trip was without sounding grossly cheesy. It was also nice to finally sketch with Eric! Even at an on-site sketching session, he was pushing me in a direction I would be far too timid to go: sketching landscape (instead of buildings) and *gasp* using color!

Our Origins Story

...by marysol

It literally started off as a date. We found each other on "social media." Honestly, I am surprised I swiped right but it was in Eric’s profile where he says he’s an INFP (what I obviously assumed was his Myers-Briggs type). I was fascinated that he found that to be something worth putting on his profile. He seemed harmless enough to not have to go through my rigorous initial "stranger danger" screening process. We had planned a date to go sketching for an afternoon.

We hit it off pretty quickly, sitting on the lawn of Iolani palace for what was only supposed to be a 90-minute sketching date. We were connecting pretty fast – at a very terrifying pace for me... on the first date and just in general. Specifically because my last long term relationship just shattered me completely and accepted that lifetime romantic love doesn't happen for everyone, including me. I just wanted guy friends and nothing serious, especially my first year of just moving back home to Hawaii. I had no idea something like this would happen or if I was even capable of being in a relationship. I felt like Eric may have been having the same sentiments and he told me “let’s just take this date-by-date.”

Eric brought up the idea of entering a film competition together. We had barely gone on a handful of dates but I'm ambitious enough to enter any competition just to use as creative exercise. Once we got started, our connection was frightfully strong and we began to use the film project as a medium to say things to each other that we couldn’t really communicate with just talking to each other. We had JUST started dating and we were already getting into a relationship pretty deep. Our film challenge entry "immerse | journey" essentially documented us just meeting and falling in love and being terrified to admit it, all while it was happening.

For immerse | journey, we went surfing, stand-up paddle boarding, hiking and ate dinner. Then, we spent 5 days hanging out at Eric’s studio playing with computers, talking about art, him teaching me how to use Final Cut Pro and eating dinner together: those are 5 solid nights of dates! Creating Immerse | journey was wholly self-referencing as our relationship developed. It’s funny to know that we portrayed our interactions as flashbacks but it all may have just happened in the same day. Now, pretty much our “next project” is what we decide to do on our next date. For shits and giggles, I was brainstorming what the next project could be while Eric was working on the editing. Eric said, “if I could ... do this full time, that would be… ideal.” I then quickly said, “well, why not? Let’s think about this...” and I started frantically writing on the next sheet of what we now call “idea pages” and that is DxDp origins story.